In comic books, lots of people lead double lives: Superman, Batman, the Hulk, to name a few. But move beyond the funny pages, and most folks have their hands full with just one identity.
Except Keith Hooper.
By day, Hooper, 36, is a financial consultant for Shearson Lehman Brothers. But at night he sheds his tortoise-rimmed glasses and signature bow tie, trading the ups and downs of LaSalle Street for crescendos of a different sort.
Hooper is founder and creative director of Fireworks Music, which he describes as ”an international interactive-media company, specializing in marketing music in creative ways.” Translated, that means Hooper leads double lives within his double life.
His musical endeavors simultaneously span the scale from classical to new age. In September, Hooper, who plays oboe and English horn, traveled to Germany to record an album of meditation and church music with his pal, organist Jurgen Schwab. Now back in Chicago, he`s putting the final touches on a Christmas jazz album. And he`s working on ”Into the Wild,” his second nature tape for the Field Museum of Natural History, which melds the roar of lions and tigers and bears with oboe and English horn.
But it`s not just Hooper`s eclectic approach to music that sets him apart.
”Keith is a real visionary,” says Michael Fischer, assistant program director and music director at radio station WNUA-FM 95.5, which airs many Hooper tunes. ”Most musicians pray they get signed by a label and, if they are signed on, then hope they`re treated right so they can become a financial success,” Fischer says. ”If you`re on the same label as Michael Bolton and Mariah Carey . . . whose record do you think the company is going to push?”
Hooper, on the other hand, has established his own record label, Fireworks Music, along with some unconventional distribution networks.
”Before Keith manufactures a product, he`s already figured out how to market it,” Fischer says.
Heard in hotels, BMWs
While Hooper`s albums can be found in standard music stores such as Rose Records, they also show up in unexpected places. Like the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers.
Since April, ”Intimate Partners,” one of Hooper`s jazz albums, has been used in hotel amenity packages. ”A gift of music is far more special and intimate than flowers or a box of chocolate,” says Ellen Butler, public relations director for the new hotel.
It also lasts a lot longer, adds Hooper, pragmatically pointing out that a CD won`t wilt or be eaten. And because the album cover features the hotel`s logo, it also functions as an advertisement, evoking memories of Chicago-and the Sheraton-each time the album is played, he theorizes.
This fall BMW will use Hooper`s ”Implosion” album in a promotion for its 740i sedan. Corporate executives in the South will be asked to test-drive the new model (with Implosion conveniently placed in the car stereo) for a week. When they return the keys, they get to keep Hooper`s album as a gift, reports John Sparks, a field marketing manager at BMW North America.
Indeed, business acumen appears to be in Hooper`s blood. His father, W. Stanley Hooper, owner of a material handling equipment company in Hamburg, N.Y., created the board game Stocks & Bonds in the mid-`50s. ”The game was designed to teach capitalism and entrepreneurialism,” says the senior Hooper. ”With Keith, it certainly seemed to work.”
Yet musical aptitude also figures in the family tree: ”Everyone plays an instrument,” says Hooper, noting that his father and his sister, a musical therapist, play violin and piano. And his mother? ”Mom, well, she bangs the pans,” he quips.
Hooper, who graduated from Colgate University in 1978 with a double major in music and economics, likes keeping a foot firmly planted in both worlds.
Fortunately for Hooper, his Shearson job doesn`t keep him chained to his desk. ”I can be an absentee landlord,” he says, explaining that as a money manager search consultant, he doesn`t really care whether IBM stock moves up or down a point. ”I find pools of money and overlap these assets with money managers who can meet client needs.” Relationships are what pay the bills, coupled with staying on top of the big picture. ”I get some of my best ideas from sailing,” confides Hooper, looking down from his office on the 34th floor of the Sears Tower to Monroe Harbor, where his Merit 25 is moored during the summer.
The computer revelation
Hooper`s financial and artistic realms collided head-on this summer. While visiting ”Backyard Monsters,” an exhibit featuring robotic insects at the Field Museum, Hooper had a revelation: Precious air space was being wasted. ”You wouldn`t watch TV with the sound off, would you?” he prods. Hooper, who is Shearson`s consultant for the Field Museum endowment and pension accounts, persuaded museum officials to let him create a soundtrack to enhance the exhibit. The result: mosquitoes, whippoorwills and tropical rain forests synchronized with oboe and English horn.
Yet it wasn`t so much the challenge of creating bug music that delighted Hooper, but rather the chance to unfurl some innovative marketing strategies within the museum`s venerable walls. Although the exhibit ended last month,
”Backyard Monsters” tapes and CDs are still being sold in the museum gift shop, bolstering institutional coffers by $9.95 and $13.95 a pop.
The ”Backyard Monsters” project also introduced Hooper to a new instrument: the computer. Investing about $35,000 in a Quadra 700 Macintosh and a slew of software, Hooper has transformed a corner of his condo into a record and production studio. ”The computer does away with reel-to-reel recording,” says Ron Pejril, Hooper`s cohort and engineering consultant at Fireworks Music, explaining that high-tech electronics enable musicians to duplicate and manipulate sound with CD quality.
The souped-up system also slices production costs; Hooper estimates that albums created on his computer cost about one-fourth what it would to go the commercial studio route.
And while his music for the Field Museum has been a philanthropic venture, Hooper has plenty of moneymaking schemes in mind for his Mac: ad jingles and custom-made albums for retail stores are just a few.
”Irrepressible, he`s irrepressible,” says Hooper`s father. ”I regularly ask Keith how he can work 28 hours a day and survive.”
`Never a dull moment`
Hooper appears to be one of those souls with untapped energy levels. He doesn`t just walk, he hustles. He doesn`t just talk, he expounds, he extrapolates, he enthuses.
”He`s always upbeat,” adds his Shearson boss, J. Patrick Kearns, a senior vice president and resident manager. ”I don`t think I`ve ever seen Keith when he wasn`t happy.”
And he even finds time for a social life.
”There`s never a dull moment with Keith around,” confides girlfriend Cathy Fitzmaurice, noting that Hooper is as multidimensional in his personal life as in his professional life. A laid-back Saturday with Hooper could include a several-mile run, watching him perform at a wedding, sailing, checking out an art fair and heading off to a party with friends. ”Luckily I have a high energy level too,” says Fitzmaurice, manager of advertising and marketing services at Sweetheart Cup Corp.
At times, Hooper`s enthusiasm can be downright overbearing. ”He wears me out,” says one colleague. ”You`re not always sure where he`s coming from,” adds a social acquaintance.
But Hooper shrugs off such criticism. His greatest fear in life is to be pigeonholed. ”People think of `ROI` as `return on investment,` whereas I think of it as `return on ideas,` ” Hooper waxes. ”Most people are absolutely frozen to take a new idea and try it.”
And in fairness to his frenzy, it`s not as if Hooper hasn`t given an ordinary existence a shot. ”I`ve tried being just a businessman, and I`ve tried being just a musician,” he says. ”Both times I was bored to death.”
